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Game-Changing Advancements in Solar Energy

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Record-Breaking Solar

This concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) cell -- which uses a focused lens to magnify light to 418 times the intensity of the sun -- earned an R&D100 Award and set a new world record of 43.5 percent for solar cell conversion efficiency. The technology is based on high-efficiency multijunction research pioneered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). | Photo by Daniel Derkacs/Solar Junction.

Date taken: 2012-11-29 09:21

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Solar Innovation

Glitter-Sized Solar Cells

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that are only 14 to 20 micrometers thick (a human hair is approximately 70 micrometers thick), yet perform at about the same efficiency as solar devices that use 100 times more silicon. Sandia’s microsystems enabled photovoltaics, also known as “solar glitter,” won a 2012 R&D 100 award. | Photo by Randy Montoya/Sandia National Laboratories.

Date taken: 2009-11-16 16:28

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Solar Breakthroughs in the Lab

In 2002, a National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) research team developed a 16.5%-efficient cadmium telluride (CdTe) PV cell and device structure that surpassed the former world record by 0.7%, absolute. Dr. Xuanzhi Wu and other NREL CdTe team members, including James Keane, have also assisted the copper indium diselenide (CIS) team in making world-record CIS cells. | Photo by Warren Gretz/NREL.

Date taken: 2012-11-29 09:21

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Solar Laser

In the late 1970s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a laser processing technique to create silicon-based solar cells with efficiencies reaching 16%. By 1986, ORNL's single-crystal silicon (c-Si) solar cell fabricated with laser processing achieved a world record conversion efficiency of 19.5%. The record efficiency for c-Si solar cells today still stands at 24.7% as reported in 1998. | Photo courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.